VATIN Check

Permalink EU VAT number check

Any VAT number allocated inside the European Union (EU) can be validated online at the official website of the European Commission: VIES VAT. Validation confirms whether a number is currently allocated, and provides the name or other identifying details of the allocated individual or entity.

With this add-on, the European VAT number of the customers can be checked during the checkout process in order to get a Tax free intracommunity delivery, if necessary.

Permalink Add-on Activation

You can activate the add-on in the menu
“WooCommerce -> German Market -> Add-ons“.
It has the name “EU VAT number check“.
After activation the add-on gets its own menu, which you can find under
“WooCommerce -> German Market -> EU VAT number check“.

Permalink General Settings

In the add-on menu, the first setting you will find is “Field Label”. This is the label that will be used for the input field of the VAT number field on the checkout page.

If a valid VAT number entry results in a tax-free order, you can specify the note that will be generated with the setting “Notice: “Tax free intracommunity delivery”“.

If the order is tax free and the destination country is not an EU member state, you can define a corresponding note with the setting “Notice: “Tax-exempt export delivery”“.

With the setting “VAT number is editable in ‘My Account’ page and user profile in backend” you can decide if the customer can edit the VAT number on the “My Account” page. In addition, as an admin, it is possible to edit the VAT number in the user profile (backend). The saved VAT number in the profile is used on the checkout page to pre-fill the VAT number field.

Permalink Requester - Vat Number

To verify a vat number of one your customers, the service of “VIES VAT” will be used. If you enter your own vat number, it will be passed to the service and return a “consultation number”. If you have enabled logging (see options below), you will see this “consultation number” in the order note. Get more information here: https://ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs/vies/help.html.

Permalink Logging

If you have activated logging, the response of “VIES VAT” API is stored as a private order note. You can then view this in the order. Additionally, any errors are listed in the WooCommerce logs.

Permalink Display VAT number field

By default, the VAT number field is displayed on the checkout page if the customer’s country is an EU country that does not correspond to your shop base country. Otherwise, the field is not displayed.

You can also set other options with this setting, e.g. that the field is always displayed. Note, however, that only European VAT numbers can be validated. Also, if the destination country is the same as your shop base country, you may not be able to get a tax-free order.

The “customer’s country” is either the country of the billing address or the country of the delivery address. This depends on your selected WooCommerce settings “Calculate tax based on“, which you can set in the menu “WooCommerce -> Settings -> Tax“.

Permalink Backend Order Table

With this setting you can optionally enable that in the menu
“WooCommerce -> Orders”
the VAT number and/or the tax note are displayed. So you have a quick overlook in this overview of the orders.

You can also view the VAT number in the respective order and edit it if necessary.